Hi. If you have been having problems using Audiobook Wizard with 10.9 Mavericks, then this version is definitely what you need. I can only apologize that I did not catch this problem earlier. I hope you have not been too greatly inconvenienced. Once Apple approve the app for download, you should be notified via the appstore app to update. Thank you for your patience.

Version 3.0 is unavoidable after all since Apple enforced implementation of sandboxing for apps. So the latest version's key feature is ... you guessed it ... app sandboxing. App sandboxing is a nice security feature that helps to protect your system against malware and rogue software. However, apps will be limited in what it can do. So the user interface needs to be changed. Fortunately, the change is minor. But the good news is in conjunction with version 3.0, I found time to add a couple of very useful features as well.

First off. You will notice that Audiobook Wizard ask you to enter a book title NOT a file name. That's because sandboxed app cannot create arbitrary files in the user's system. From the given book title, Audiobook Wizard will create the audio file(s) and place them into the user's Music folder under the subfolder "Audiobook Wizard". On the other hand, since the new version has an option to automatically add these books to iTunes, users won't really have to deal with this new directory arrangement at all.

On to a great new feature. You can drag drop files directly from iTunes itself into the app! This is a very useful feature for people who are already using iTunes to manage their audio files. Select the files from the Music library page or from the playlist and simply drop them into Audiobook Wizard. The order of the files will exactly follow the order within iTunes. Great if you are accustomed to using iTunes's powerful file & tag management capability to order your files. Once dropped into Audiobook Wizard, there is no need to do any sorting or re-arranging.

But if you do want to manually re-arrange files, you will like the next improvement which is the drag and drop capability of the app. Files can be added to the any row on the list when previously it can only be added to the last row. Moving and re-arranging files within the list is easier and more accurate. Previously, adding a file or files to an existing list causes the list to be re-sorted. This is not always an intended consequence. In this version, files are never auto sorted. Files are placed into the list according to the order they are presented when drag dropped (this is usually same order of files in the Finder window). User must click on sort if that is needed.

All that and some hidden improvements to come. I expect version 3.0 to be approved for download soon. Thank you all and do write me directly if you need help.

I just uploaded version 2.2 for approval to the app store. I expect this to be available for download in a few days. The key changes in this version are:
1. Added encoding quality option to the app. I received quite a few requests to add this option so you can say I caved under pressure. I always wanted to create the simplest app possible that people can use without thinking. However, I do think I might have underestimated my user's desire to deal with options. So here it is in version 2.2. You can choose CD Stereo, Enhanced and Standard encoding quality. The bit rates are 128 kbps stereo, 64 kbps mono and 32 kbps mono respectively. The default setting is Enhanced. Enhanced mode is actually similar to Audible audio's enhanced mode while Standard is equivalent to Audible Format 4.

2. Improved conversion speed. Up to 6X compared to version 2.0! It's kind crazy. I don't know whether to be proud or to kick myself for not making this improvement earlier. If you are in a hurry and can accept standard quality encoding (32 kbps mono), then this version can encode a 12.5 hours book in 8 minutes. Version 2.0 took almost 60 minutes. In CD Stereo mode, it is at least 3X faster then previous version. About 18 mins for the same book. Enhanced mode is about 4X faster.

With the availability of encoding quality option, the output file size becomes an consideration. Using the same example of a 12.5 hours book, in Standard mode the final file size is 200MB. For Enhanced mode it's 400MB. In CD Stereo it is 600MB. If file size is important to you, then do consider the quality vs size compromise.

The option also affects the maximum book length allowed for any one file (No worries. You can still create unlimited length audiobooks. Audiobook Wizard will just split it into multiple files for you once the maximum size limit has been reached). For CD Stereo and Enhanced, any volume of a multi volume book cannot exceed 13 hours. In Standard mode, the maximum length is an incredible 37 hours in about 600+ MB. Nice for archiving.

So you can see why I just had to release version 2.2. The combination of faster encode and much demanded bit rate option is irresistible. Please contact me directly if you find any issues and have any suggestions for future improvements.

Wishing everyone a happy new year and success in 2012. Reflecting, 2011 has been mostly kind to me. I read even more books than ever or rather I listened. Since discovering audiobooks, I find that I rarely read paper books or ebooks anymore. Audiobooks allow me to read when I otherwise won't have time like while driving or at the gym. I am always trying to convince friends to jump on the audiobook bandwagon but it's not easy and their first read will always be difficult. Listening to a book takes some getting use to.
On Audiobook Wizard, it has been a good year. I released version 2.0 a couple of months back and so far sales has been steady. I am grateful for the support I am getting from my users. But if you are not ready to trade up from version 1.1 which is still completely free, that's ok too. If you used Audiobook Wizard and it has in some ways enrich your experience with a good book, I am happy.

I've been getting feedback recently on chapter names. Specifically how Audiobook Wizard name chapters in the final audiobook output. This is the chapter markers visible in iTunes when you play the audiobook. What if you have a bunch of mp3 files with names like these?

As Audiobook Wizard uses the file name to generate chapter names, the resulting chapter marker names will be just as long. This seems to bother some people. And I have a solution. Depending on your actual issue, you can either use OSX built in Automator app to rename these files or for more complex scenario, something like NameChanger will do nicely. Click through to find out more.

Warning: When shortening or changing file names, remember Audiobook Wizard need to know how to sort the files in proper order. For example, if your files is originally named "1 - ..", "2 -.." etc, don't remove the numeric value as they indicate the order of the book chapters.

Thank you for supporting my appstore version of Audiobook Wizard. Sales has been steady ever since it was put up on the appstore. It won't make me rich or anything ;) but it's gratifying nonetheless. Thank you all.

If you are using ripping audiobook CDs to MP3 or AAC format prior to converting them to audiobook format using Audiobook Wizard, here's the recommended settings and why.

Do not be tempted to use "Spoken Podcast" as the resulting quality may cause problems after Audiobook Wizard up convert to 128 kbps during the conversion process. You may choose to use "error correction" but the result is hardly worth the trouble. Remember you can and should delete the ripped MP3 or AAC files from your iTunes library after you've converted them to a single audiobook using Audiobook Wizard. The extra disk space needed for a high quality rip will be reclaimed so do not hesitate to use high quality settings to get best result from Audiobook Wizard.

The latest version of Audiobook Wizard is on sales for $4.99 at the Mac Appstore! (goto download section to find download link). It has taken a while but it's finally here. Version 2.0 of Audiobook Wizard is simpler to use, twice as fast and fixes a lot of reported bugs from version 1.1.
I hope current users will consider upgrading to the paid version to support my work on Audiobook Wizard. However, version 1.1 will continue to be available for free although I've discontinued support for it. For new users that have never converted audio files into audiobooks for their iDevices before, version 1.1 is a good way to get your feet wet.

It's been a while since I've updated this website. Sorry but I got a day job and it has been really busy. The good news is I managed to find some time recently to create a totally new version of Audiobook Wizard which is faster, with more features and at the same time less features (to make the process as error free and as painless as possible). More importantly, this is the only version that supports OS X Lion. It's complicated why the previous version wouldn't but it has to do with use of Rosetta which is no longer supported in OS X Lion. I plan to put this version up for sale on the Mac Appstore for a pittance to support my programming habit. The previous version will continue to be available free of charge and I encourage you to continue using it if you are using Snow Leopard and lower versions of OS X. Thank you for the many emails I received and hope the new version will fill the need for Lion support.

I do. Really. Then I got older. I started going blind from looking at computer screens. So i stopped reading and started listening. I found this great software called Audiobook Maker by Ben Gummer and use it to convert my mp3 audio files to audiobook format so I could listen to them on my ipod and iphone. But it has problems. Like programmers everywhere, I had too much time on hand and set about writing my own version of an audiobook maker.
This is really my first Mac application having just learned objective c. Audiobook Wizard will have bugs and issues and problems and god knows what else. However, it will mostly work. I hope.

Do try it. Let me know if you like it. Only for Mac OS X. Oh yeah...it's free.